The BBC iPlayer’s arrival on Xbox Live has been postponed indefinitely after Microsoft failed to determine a service agreement with the broadcaster.
According to a story in The Daily Telegraph, the two firms are locked in stalemate as the BBC insists that the service should be free, while Microsoft wants to charge for the additional content. As a BBC source explains:
Microsoft only wants to offer its users access to platforms it can charge for as this is the model it is pursuing.
It wants to ensure that only those paying for Xbox Live Gold accounts can access its additional content services and even then there is usually a charge on top to get access to those. For example, to access the Sky Player on Xbox, you have to pay for a Gold subscription as well as a Sky subscription.
This does not fit with the BBC’s model and Microsoft will not budge at the moment. It is really frustrating for those involved on the BBC side who want to make sure iPlayer is rolled out on as many popular entertainment platforms as possible.
The BBC have already launched the iPlayer on both PS3 and Wii as a free service. The corporation is unable to charge for iPlayer because it is already covered by the license fee.
